This baked pasta dish makes a tasty change from the usual lasagne. You can buy tubes of dried cannelloni in most large supermarkets or Italian delis. It can be a little fiddly to fill the tubes – you’ll need to use a teaspoon, preferably one with a long handle. For a less fiddly method use sheets of fresh lasagne, spoon the filling down one short end then loosely roll up to enclose the filling. Roquefort cheese is a pungent French blue cheese but for a milder flavour you can use creamy soft ricotta cheese or try a mix of both.
Ingredients
- 1tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
- 200g baby spinach leaves, washed and chopped
- 150g Roquefort cheese, crumbled
- 40g walnut pieces
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 16 dried cannelloni tubes
- 375g tub fresh cheese sauce
- Tomatoes and rocket leaves, to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Fan 170°C/Gas Mark 5. Grease a large shallow ovenproof dish.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion and garlic for 5-6 mins until softened. Add the spinach leaves and a splash of water and cover and cook gently until the spinach has wilted. Stir in the cheese and walnuts and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Using a teaspoon fill each cannelloni tube with some of the spinach mixture and place in a single layer in the greased dish. Pour over the cheese sauce.
Cover the dish with greased foil and bake for 30 mins. Remove the foil and bake for a further 10-15 mins until the top is golden and bubbling and the cannelloni is tender. Serve immediately with tomatoes and rocket.
Top tip for making Roquefort and spinach cannelloni
Replace the cheese sauce with a carton of fresh tomato sauce and top with grated Parmesan cheese, if preferred.
